Kirino's 'Tail' (rewrite)
by inigoluvr69
Summary: (Rewrite of the original) When the injured merman Kirino Ranmaru washes up on Shindou's shore, he's not expecting his life to become a fantasy novel, much less the romance it plays out to be... Rantaku - AU - Minor kyouten


**So it's 9/3 and you know what that means... It's rantaku day! So I decided to rewrite one of my oldest fanfics, Kirinos Tail! The original one had bad pacing and random dropped subplots so now that I have some experience writing I'm going to rewrite the whole thing!**

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Summer vacation. As crazy as it sounds, Shindou never liked it. For one thing, he could never get any peace and quiet since the beach outside his house was always busy. He'd read all the books he had any interest in at his local library, and he didn't see his two best friends much anymore ever since they started dating.  
School. He liked school. It gave him something to do; he was never wasting his time there. He got to see his friends every day, and was even kept busy after school with homework. Unfortunately, this summer would last forever.  
People often thought that being rich was the good life. Sure, you could have every material possession you could ever dream of, but it was also the most _boring_ life you could have. Shindou never held much sentiment in what he had since he had it so easily. He thought he might be able to become more independent by moving to a school in another town and living on his own, but he was wrong. His parents still handled everything from paying the taxes to hiring a cleaning lady to come in every Sunday.  
His life was so _predictable_, and he hated it. Shindou loved reading for the reason that he can never know exactly what happens next. His bookshelves were crammed full with fantasy novels that he'd read dozens of times.

He sighed, leaning on the windowsill of his house by the shore. On the outside, his life seemed perfect. He'd just graduated high school with perfect grades, he had a seemingly unlimited amount of money at his disposal, and he was in the process of writing his first novel. His life was basically planned out, and _oh _how he hated that.  
As a kid, he'd always read books and imagine going on an adventure, like rescuing a fairy prince or meeting someone from another realm. But none of it ever happened. No magical beings ever showed up at his doorstep, or ran into him in the forest. At this point, Shindou had accepted his fate, his annoyingly perfect fate.

He looked at the beach from the window, it was empty for once. He stood up and stretched, walking to the door and slipping on his flip-flops. It was a rare occurrence that the beach was empty, so he might as well take advantage of it and go on a walk.  
The sun had begun to set as he stepped out onto the porch. Shindou remembered what he liked about this house: It had a great view. He walked up to the clear blue water when he noticed something unusual. Some of the water near some large rocks to his left had turned red. He raised an eyebrow, walking towards it. _Maybe a seagull hit a rock and fell into the water…_ Shindou thought.  
He carefully began to climb over the large rocks. They served as a barrier between the public beach and the private beach of a resort nearby, but Shindou had never seen behind them. When Shindou got his first look over the rocks, he saw another wall of stone a few meters away, making the area in-between an enclosed cove. It was only accessible by going around or over the rocks, as there was a tall fence bordering the back of the cove.  
Shindou started to climb down on the other side, but when he saw what was in the shallow water he lost his footing and fell face-first into the sand. He sat up, dusting sand off himself before crawling over to an unconscious figure lying on the shore, where the waves came in.  
he looked like a normal boy, well, mostly. Shindou couldn't help but stare when he saw that the bottom half of this boy was more akin to a fish tail then legs.  
Shindou reached out, running his hands along the wet orange scales. A mermaid… wait, no, _merman_. Shindou had an interest in them when he first moved to the beach, but moved on not long after. Even so, he read dozens of books about them. He looked at the human part of the merman, which was covered in cuts and bruises. His long pink hair was messy and covered in sand and he either wasn't wearing a shirt to begin with, or lost in whatever happened to give him so many injuries. As he stood up to get something to patch up the merman, Shindou couldn't help but laugh at himself. He'd read so many novels that something like this felt normal to him. He was sure most people's first thoughts upon seeing a merman would be 'This can't be real!' or '…impossible!' not 'maybe I should help him'.  
Nevertheless, Shindou hurried back to his house, returning with a first aid kit a few minutes later. He sat down beside the merman and pulled him out of the water to treat him. He wrapped all of the boy's cuts in gauze, since Band-Aids would probably just come off in the water. Gauze would hopefully at least keep blood from getting into the water.  
Shindou was almost finished when the merman's breath started to get raspy and dry. Shindou suddenly remembered that he probably couldn't breathe outside of water, and in a panic pulled him back into the shallow water. He wasn't going to meet his first supernatural creature and accidently kill it.  
He jumped back in surprise when the merman began coughing and taking in large breaths of water. Shindou cautiously moved forward as the merman's eyes slowly opened.  
The merman propped himself up on his elbows, looking around. He froze when his eyes locked on to Shindou. Following his first thought, he tried to swim away, but his injuries didn't let him get away too easily. After his brain registered what had just happened, Shindou ran towards the water,  
"Hey!" He called out to the merman, "You can't move too much, you'll reopen your cuts!"  
Apparently the merman had realised this too, as he was taking refuge clinging onto once of the rocks.  
"Uh, sorry if I scared you!" Shindou said, trying to get a response from the merman, but all he got was a threatening glare. After a minute of this, Shindou sighed,  
"Maybe it can't talk…" Shindou said to himself, "I guess it must be just a fish…" he was going to just leave when another voice suddenly stopped him,  
"Excuse me!" he heard someone yell from behind him. Shindou turned around only to see the merman's glare at him somehow get more intense, and he looked like he would go over there and fight him at any moment. "I am not 'just a fish" His rage carried on for a few more moments when he realised his mistake, but it was too late. Shindou had already returned to the water,  
"Whoa, sorry, when all you did was glare I just assumed…" He trailed off.  
"Or maybe I just didn't want to talk to you." Said the merman, frowning. He let go of the rock, turning around to swim away, "Now if you don't mind…"  
"Good luck with that." Shindou replied, "You're tail may look nice but it's too beat up to get you very far."  
Kirino was suddenly painfully aware of this as he tried to swim but was faced with a jolt of pain. He sunk down under the water and to the ground. A minute or so later, Shindou watched as the merman dragged himself back onto shore. Shindou reached his hand down,  
"Listen, if you need help, I can help you until you're well enough to swim."  
The merman eyed his hand cautiously,  
"Why aren't you surprised?" Asked the merman suddenly, "I expected a very different reaction from a human." He'd be backing away right now if he could.  
Shindou shrugged,  
"I guess I've just read one too many fantasy novels." He said, "Now do you want help or do you want me to leave you here, unable to move, until those cuts heal in a few days?"  
The merman didn't move, "Well what do you plan to do with me? I'm not stupid. I'm not going with a human stranger without a second thought."  
Shindou expected this. It couldn't be as easy as it was in books to make the supernatural trust you, "Well, my house is just on the beach nearby. You can stay there until you're better. I can give you something to eat there to. I'm sure you'll get hungry sitting over here."  
The merman looked out to the setting sun. He hated to admit it, but the human was right. He'd probably take even longer to heal if he didn't have access to food. There didn't seem to be anything he could eat on the cove he was in, so even when he healed he wouldn't have the energy to swim anywhere far away.  
Shindou smiled, he was right and he knew it. He kept his hand out in case the merman changed his mind. He turned back to Shindou,  
"How do I know you'll let me leave when I've gotten better? I've heard endless stories about humans who kidnap Merfolk."  
Shindou shrugged, "Well I haven't just picked you up and taken you yet. Besides, it's close enough to the beach that you could probably drag yourself back if you really wanted to."  
The merman raised an eyebrow; the last part of that sentence wasn't exactly as reassuring as it was meant to be. He looked to Shindou's face to see that he was smiling,  
"but then again, it's hard to trust someone who hasn't even told you their name!" He said, "My name is Shindou Takuto, and you are?" Shindou really didn't expect the merman to reply, but to his surprise, the merman quietly answered,  
"Kirino."  
The reply gave Shindou newfound confidence. He moved his hand a little closer to Kirino,  
"It's almost dark, so what do you say?"  
Kirino crossed his arms and turned away,  
"I'll stay here, thank you very much."  
Shindou sighed and stood up, dusting sand off of himself,  
"If that's what you want."

Kirino watched the human boy go, disappearing over the rocks before lying down in the sand. These were going to be a long few days.


End file.
